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Intelligent lighting for the 21st century | Part 3

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From aesthetics to performance,

we can help to ensure quality.

Line scan applications

Line scan systems are mainly used for inspection of continuous
material. They are also well suited for applications requiring extremely
high resolution or speed, or for the inspection of cylindrical or rotating
objects.

Web inspection

A typical field of application for line scan cameras is the inspection of a
continuous product such as a textile, paper, glass or steel plate. These
objects have no defined beginning or end and can be thought of as
infinite in length.

Conveyor belts

Imaging objects on a conveyor belt is also an excellent use for line scan
technology, especially if the objects under inspection vary in length and
a high resolution image is required. Capturing images with an area scan
camera would require a vertical field of view large enough for the
biggest part, limiting the resolution. In addition, illuminating large
areas can be a problem. Line scan gets round these problems by
effectively varying the image height depending on start/stop signals
derived from the part as it moves past the camera. In addition it is far
easier to illuminate a single line across the conveyor.

Rotating objects

Line scan is also a very convenient way of imaging cylindrical components. Trying to do this with an area scan camera would be difficult and
would involve correcting the distortion caused by imaging the curved
surface, plus having to take multiple images to capture the entire
surface. A line scan camera records the same optical position across the
whole cylinder eliminating distortion; rotating the cylinder will
generate an "unwrapped" image of the entire surface.